A long-lost science fiction thriller centred on time travel and nuclear catastrophe is finally set for release in 2025. Big Daddy—originally written more than two decades ago—will be published by Hit the North after spending a quarter of a century hidden away in a drawer.
Author Mark Brumby penned the novel, originally titled Lost Weekend, in the late 1990s. Despite early interest from literary agents and publishers, Brumby opted for a more stable career path, becoming a financial analyst and investor with a focus on the UK hospitality sector.
Now head of Langton Capital, a respected advisory firm offering insight into the leisure and hospitality industries, Mark returned to writing with the recent publication of Always Adam. When asked by his publisher if he had any other work, he revisited Lost Weekend, which has since been retitled Big Daddy—a name that reflects the story’s contemporary relevance.
‘The world is a lot more unpredictable and unbalanced than it was in 2000 with the rise of global populism, Trump’s chaotic second term and Putin threatening to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine,’ said Hit the North publisher, Andrew Field. ‘Big Daddy’s timeless flight shows how nations should be working together as allies, not enemies.’
Andrew added: ‘We’re chuffed to rescue Big Daddy and release the book for fans of time-travel sci-fi thrillers. The title of the book is a fictious third bomb, similar to the ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ devices dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the second world war.’
Big Daddy weaves together multiple timelines, with scenarios such as tenth-century Vikings waking in twentieth-century Hull, a Nazi unit committing atrocities in post-war Poland, and a lost B-29 bomber resuming a 1945 mission over Japan in 1999.
Though written decades ago, Brumby maintains that neither Big Daddy nor its sequel feel dated.
‘The ‘science-not-quite-fact’ should have the word ‘yet’ at the end and, as none of the science I’ve alluded to has come to pass, the stories haven’t been overtaken by events. There’s time for that to happen yet, however!’
Born in Hull and now living between York and London, Brumby is a Cambridge graduate, chartered accountant and entrepreneur. His writing is expected to resonate with fans of Blake Crouch, Andy Weir and Iain M. Banks.
‘Like any analyst who also writes, I love to play with ‘what if’ scenarios and let my imagination run wild in a credible world. If time-travel existed, how could we ensure it was used responsibly and avoid it being exploited by the wrong people? The same question applies to artificial intelligence, especially as authors are being exploited by tech giants, and their books harvested without payment to apparently train AI software,’ said Mark.
Brumby reflects candidly on the risks of investing and publishing alike.
‘As an investor, I’ve benefited from one or two windfalls, but I’ve got a habit of recycling windfalls, though, so it was, and still is, ‘two steps forward and one step back’. If I could erase all the bad stuff, I’d be laughing. For instance, one company I worked for struggled and, as a major shareholder, I made one of those ‘one step back’ moves. It wasn’t life threatening, but nobody likes to lose half their money, even if they’re still comfortable on most measures. As a family we’ve have never had a very high maintenance lifestyle so I was able to find it exciting and horrible rather than just super-horrible.
‘Books are equally risky in the sense that the vast majority of authors write brilliant novels but struggle to reach out to an audience without major investment. That’s why celebrity authors have such as advantage. They are already known and have large, loyal followings – so most of their battles are won. I think the secret for the vast majority of us is to be pragmatic and let the books loose on the world and see what happens. If you’re writing purely for money, you might be disappointed.’
Big Daddy will be released as a digital edition on 23rd May, followed by hardback (ISBN: 9781068574733) and pocket paperback (ISBN: 9781068574764) editions on 6th June 2025 via Hit the North.
